What to Watch for
Blanche’s nomination will now move to a full Senate vote, where he can only afford to lose two Republican senators in order to be confirmed. Though Cornyn and Tillis are now backing Blanche, there are still a few GOP lawmakers who haven’t publicly committed to voting for him and are considered potential swing votes, including Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine. Cassidy declined to comment on Blanche to reporters Monday, while Murkowski suggested the deal Blanche reached with Cornyn and Tillis was a “good step” and it “says a lot” that the GOP senators were satisfied. It’s also still unclear if the Senate will vote on Blanche’s confirmation before lawmakers leave for their August recess later this week, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., saying Monday he’d “ideally” like to hold a vote before they leave. Blanche will still be able to serve as acting attorney general while senators are on vacation, if he isn’t formally confirmed before.
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What Did Cornyn And Tillis Say Tuesday?
In a speech before the vote Tuesday, Cornyn noted how he “needed specific assurances in writing” about the IRS settlement in order to vote for Blanche, calling his requests “critically important to me” and other members of the Senate. Cornyn said he, Tillis and the DOJ reached a deal on Blanche issuing “an agency-interpretive guidance document” that modified the IRS settlement, and did not seem to suggest he believed the guidance was binding or didn’t have loopholes that could allow Blanche to still reinstate the deal. Rather, the Texas senator suggested he trusted the DOJ when they’ve said in court the fund is dead and won’t be revived. Cornyn backed Blanche’s confirmation more broadly, referring to him as a “strong legal mind” and saying the country needs a “stabilizing force at the Department of Justice” rather than a temporary appointee. Tillis, similarly, said he was satisfied with the deal they reached with Blanche and did not argue it was binding, saying only he “believe[s] that we have addressed the concerns” that Cornyn and Tillis had about the settlement fund. In comments to reporters after the vote finished, Cornyn then said he and Tillis “did the best we could given the circumstances,” and predicted it was “highly unlikely” the $1.8 billion fund could be revived “without the cooperation of the Department of Justice.” He acknowledged he had “no alternative but to take [Blanche’s] word for that,” as quoted by Punchbowl News, but said he thought it was “highly unlikely that it could be revived.”
Chief Critics
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee broadly attacked Blanche’s nomination Tuesday in a series of speeches ahead of the vote, painting the nominee as a Trump crony incapable of shedding his role as the president’s former personal attorney. “We will rue the day we let this man have so much power under such a corrupt president,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said Tuesday, while Durbin argued “the political escapade over the past week” with Cornyn and Tillis’ negotiations “has made it clearer than ever that Todd Blanche has no business being the country’s chief law enforcement officer.” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a frequent Trump critic who has been personally targeted by the DOJ, said Tuesday that while Trump is “entitled to his own views about me or anyone else, he is not entitled to use the Department of Justice” to go after the president’s political enemies, and argued the day that becomes normalized is the day the “rule of law becomes merely an unenforceable ideal.”
Could The $1.8 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund Be Revived?
While Cornyn and Tillis are now trusting Blanche when he says he the $1.8 billion fund is dead, it would legally still be possible for the Trump administration to revive it. Since Blanche’s order Sunday—which states,“This Order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no fund”—was only signed by him, it doesn’t follow the requirement in the settlement agreement stating it can only be modified “with the written agreement of the parties.” That means there would legally not be anything stopping Blanche from simply repealing Sunday’s order and reinstating the fund, with Durbin commenting Tuesday the fund “can easily be revived with a new order from the Department of Justice 15 minutes after” Blanche is formally confirmed. Trump or other parties in the IRS lawsuit, like his eldest sons, could also theoretically sue the DOJ for breach of contract and allege they should reinstate the fund because they didn’t agree in writing to killing it. If they don’t revive the anti-weaponization fund in its present form, it’s also possible the Trump administration could try to get payouts to political allies in other ways, such as by creating a new fund or paying out individual settlements to allies who bring lawsuits. Whitehouse argued Tuesday that even if the DOJ doesn’t try to revive the fund, the fact Blanche okayed it in the first place suggests he shouldn’t be confirmed. Likening the DOJ backing off the fund to a burglar who was “forced to give back some of the jewelry he stole,” Whitehouse said, “Being forced to give back some ill-gotten gains doesn’t mean you’re not still a burglar.”
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What About The Immunity Deal?
Trump’s immunity deal with the Treasury Department is still in effect, as Blanche has not rescinded it and has suggested he does not believe the agency has to follow a court order that appeared to nullify it. The agreement broadly says the federal government is “forever barred and precluded” from bringing prosecutions or civil actions that “have been or could have been” asserted against Trump and his affiliates, which has been interpreted to give Trump and people linked to him broad legal immunity for actions they’ve already taken. In his written documents Sunday, Blanche confirmed restrictions to the agreement that Cornyn and Tillis had requested, saying the agreement only applies to the parties in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and only applies retroactively to actions that already took place when the settlement agreement was signed in May. That means it only shields Trump, his eldest sons and the Trump Organization—the plaintiffs in the lawsuit—from prosecution or civil action from the IRS or Treasury Department. While Cornyn and Tillis suggested in a statement Monday they believed the order narrowing the scope was “binding,” it faces similar concerns as the fund, as it was not modified under the terms of the settlement agreement and could thus be easily changed. “This is so broad and nothing in this supposed clarification changes that,” Schiff argued Tuesday. Critics have noted the narrowed scope—which Blanche claimed during his confirmation hearing has always been the case, rather than something that’s just being restricted now—also conflicts with the direct language of the agreement. The initial agreement states it applies to the plaintiffs and “related and affiliated individuals” and covers both the agencies involved in the lawsuit and “other agencies or Departments.” Even if the fund only shields Trump from tax investigations, it could still deliver sizable benefits, however, with Schiff pointing Tuesday to Forbes’ reporting finding the deal could save the president as much as $600 million.
Key Background
Blanche represented Trump in such cases as his Manhattan criminal trial before being appointed as deputy attorney general, with the president then elevating him to acting attorney general and nominating him for the permanent job after previous AG Pam Bondi was fired in April. The attorney had also previously served in the DOJ in a variety of jobs, including as an assistant U.S. attorney, before going into private practice and eventually representing Trump. Blanche’s confirmation has been widely controversial given issues like Trump’s IRS settlement and the agency’s handling of the Epstein files, which resulted in a number of victims’ information not getting properly redacted while other information was improperly kept private. The $1.8 billion fund has become particularly controversial even among Republicans, and Cornyn and Tillis said they would not support Blanche without something in writing that rescinded the fund. Blanche issued his orders appearing to kill the fund late Sunday after a week of negotiations, with Cornyn and Tillis claiming an unnamed White House advisor appeared to be blocking the DOJ from making a deal.
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